Honduras

Back in 2001, expectations in Latin America soared when the newly elected George W. Bush promised to turn the 2000s into the "Century of the Americas." The Sept. 11 attacks and their aftermath, however, quickly dashed any hope for integration and shared prosperity, and instead ushered in an era of mutual disappointment and recrimination.

The moment deposed Honduran President Manuel Zelaya walked into the Brazilian embassy in Honduras' capital, Tegucigalpa, on Sept. 21, Brazil was thrust into the center of the Honduran crisis.

The South American giant has since requested an urgent meeting of the United Nations Security Council and called for a U.N. investigation of human rights abuses perpetrated by Roberto Micheletti's de facto government in Honduras. At the opening of the U.N. General Assembly, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva demanded Zelaya's "immediate return to the presidency."

U.S. policy toward Latin America is suffering from a lack of experience at the top. Neither President Obama nor Vice President Biden or anyone in the cabinet could honestly be considered a Latin Americanist. And Arturo Valenzuela, Obama's nominee for assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs -- the top diplomatic post in the region -- remains unconfirmed, the victim of a Republican senator's cheap political maneuvering.

The Honduran delegates that arrived here last weekend to meet with members of Congress and other U.S. officials were clearly dissatisfied with the U.S. response to last month's ousting of Honduran President Manuel Zelaya. Insisting they were here to defend democracy -- and not just Zelaya -- the delegates felt the Obama administration wasn't doing all it could.